It’s now official – around three-quarters of adults in Britain gamble. The latest independent report published by the UK’s Gambling Commission shows that 73% have participated in some form of gambling activity in the last year, up from 68% in 2007. The British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2010 also shows that only a relatively small proportion these people gamble online. Problem gamblers have increased but the numbers remain at the margins of statistical significance or below (between 0.7% and 0.9%) and are similar to other European countries. The US, Australia and South Africa have higher percentages of problem gamblers.

The latest report is the third in a series which provide data on participation in gambling, the prevalence of problem gambling and attitudes towards gambling. It is the first major survey on the prevalence of gambling in Great Britain to be completed since the Gambling Act 2005 came into force in 2007 and was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).

“The survey confirms that there are a significant and growing number of people who take part in gambling“, said Brian Pomeroy, the Gambling Commission’s Chairman. “However, it also indicates that a small, but probably growing, proportion of the population have serious problems with their gambling. This reinforces our determination to see that gambling regulation continues to both minimise the risk to those individuals and ensure that the majority of people can continue to gamble safely.”

As noted in previous years, the most popular gambling activity was the National Lottery. In 2010, 59% of adults had bought tickets for the National Lottery Draw, a slight increase from the rates observed in 2007 (57%) but lower than rates observed in 1999 (65%). Excluding those who had only gambled on the National Lottery Draw, 56% of adults participated in some other form of gambling in the past year. Comparable estimates for 1999 and 2007 were 46% and 48%. This highlights a significant increase in past year participation on other gambling activities, such as an increase in betting on other events. There was a small 1% decline in slot machine and online play and a larger decrease (5%) in football pools.

In 2010, after the National Lottery, the most popular gambling activities were other lotteries (25%), scratchcards (24%), betting on horse races (16%), playing slot machines (13%) and private betting (11%). Less than one in ten people took part in each other activity. Estimates ranged from 9% who took part in bingo and betting on sports events to 1% who reported spread betting. The prevalence of playing poker in a pub tournament or at a club was measured for the first time in 2010. Overall, 2% of adults reported playing poker this way in the past year.

A core objective of the 2010 survey was to collect more detailed information about how people gamble. Overall, 14% of adults had used the internet to gamble in the past year. This included buying lottery tickets online, betting online, playing casino games, bingo or other slot machines style games and playing the football pools online. Among past year gamblers, 81% reported that they gambled ‘in-person’ only, that is they gambled using any offline method, such as placing a bet in a betting shop, visiting a casino or bingo hall, buying lottery tickets or scratchcards in a shop and so on. 17% of past year gamblers had gambled both online and in-person. Only 2% of past year gamblers had gambled ‘online only’.

Reasons for gambling were grouped into five broad areas: enhancement, recreation, social, coping and monetary reasons. Results are presented for regular (at least monthly) gamblers and show that reasons for gambling vary among different sub-groups. Men were more likely than women to report gambling for enhancement (i.e., for excitement or achievement) or coping (i.e., tension relief). Older gamblers were more likely than younger gamblers to report gambling for recreation or monetary reasons.

Comparisons with 2007 show that overall attitudes to gambling in 2010 have become more positive. Although the overall viewpoint is still somewhat negative, it is less negative than previously; indicating that attitudes are changing. Attitudes to gambling have changed the most among those aged 55 and over, whose mean attitudes scores have become somewhat more positive and more in line with the attitudes of younger age groups. This corresponds with an increase in gambling participation among this age group. (E-02.16.11)

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